Cartesius Page #7

---

who when lost in a forest

start to turn and wander

around without any direction.

I cannot stop myself from

suspecting that there is

some pride in your affirmations.

Corruption lies there Doctor.

I'm having a comfortable

trunk made for my travels.

Observe how the blacksmith works well.

Our Aristotelians maintain

that the hammer must be swung

fast so that nature

is surprised by the speed

and is not left any time

to gather it forces in

to resist the impact of the hammer.

Don't you think their theory is absurd?

Absolutely.

It'll be ready soon.

I'll come back this evening.

I believe that a method of overcoming

doubt and of producing certainty,

should mirror the mechanical arts,

that contain the principles according

to which it is necessary to fabricate

the instruments necessary for them.

What a noise.

Yes, deafening, we'd best leave.

I must hurry to leave.

When are you leaving?

And where are you going?

Perhaps to Italy.

But before departing I 'm going

to visit my countryside at Turenne

to sell the part

of my maternal inheritance

in land and herds,

but I will not sell

before putting aside

a little butter from my cows for you.

I thank you and don't

forget to write to me.

No.

May God help you.

Requiem eternam...

Here are the two deeds of sale.

Mr Rene Descartes will receive

two thousand

pounds from Mr Dielefis

for the purchase of the Gran

Maison and Marchais estates,

another three thousand

will be paid by Mr Chatillon

for the landed estate of Peron,

and Mr Pierre Descartes,

the brother of Mr Rene

Descartes has no objection?

No none.

I want it to be clear that

purchase of the noble rights

over the Bonvenier land

is part of the same transaction.

This appears in the contract

according to the terms you

agreed at the time with Mr Descartes.

Very good, all you have

to do now is to sign.

According to the terms, the contract

will come into force in eight days time.

- Gentlemen.

- Gentlemen.

- Good-day.

- Good-day.

And so you want to free yourself

of part of the inheritance.

This displeases me because

I realise that you have decided

that you don't want to come

back and live with us.

You don't love France.

I wish to live in a place

useful to me,

that I like, where I can

discover something,

where only a few people know me

and where I can reflect in peace.

When will I be able

to see you again?

I don't know. Certainly

when I return from Italy.

You've sold some good rich land.

But I did so with good profit.

Theophile de Vian is an

unpunished libertine atheist,

what malice to have had

the impudence of writing

horrible blasphemies against God.

With his disgusting verses he has

turned our Paris into a Gomorrah.

He has fled and we burn his effigy,

and together with his effigy,

his writings and the writings

of all other libertines burn.

The prince of darkness must

be hunted down in his realm.

In the eternal flame to which

God has condemned him.

Burn him!

God will punish these libertines.

Also on this earth he will punish them.

Intolerance is like the plague.

I've been away for three years,

but every time I return to Paris

I always find something

that upsets me

and that makes me want to

leave as soon as possible.

You certainly wouldn't have been able to enjoy

such an exciting spectacle as that in Italy.

So much barbarism and so much

vulgarity amazes and upsets me.

Parliament has exiled the

authors of the theses against

Aristotelian philosophy from Paris,

it has forbidden them from divulging

and teaching under the pain of death

and has condemned Teophile together

with many more of our libertine friends.

... who taught their vices and

made even the

candid paper on which

they wrote blush ...

A good job Teophile Vian

managed to flee Paris,

so that now they have to content

themselves with burning his effigy.

... but fire purifies the earth from their

pride and will render justice to God.

The product of proud

minds must be destroyed.

It is like the discord that

suffocates the souls of simpletons.

They will be thrown into hell.

They will tell Father Mersenne

that if I didn't go to see him

it's because I haven't left

the house for a long time.

The air of Paris has

become stifling for me.

Tell him however that I shall certainly

be at the meeting he has prepared for me.

Thank you, sir, there are

many of us would like to know

the fruit of your reflections

Father Mersenne has talked

to us often about you.

Sirs, in bending in to

Father Mersenne's insistence,

I wish to report to you what I have

undertaken to write on this subject,

after two long years of reflection.

The twenty one rules for

guiding intelligence.

It seems incredible to me that

a great number of persons research

the customs of men,

the virtues of the plants,

the motions of the stars,

the transformation of metals and many

other similar disciplines with such fervour

and that no one takes the trouble

of researching man's mind,

about how it may work correctly.

About the human mind, which is a

wonderful and universal source of wisdom

and without which there

would be no knowledge.

The first rule.

The aim of study must be that of

guiding the mind to certain and true

judgements concerning

everything presented to it

If someone seriously wants to find the

truth, he must not just apply himself

to one particular science, because

the sciences are all connected

and dependent on each other

in the unity of knowledge.

The second rule.

We should only concern

ourselves with those objects

that we think we can reach

certain and safe knowledge of

through our intelligence.

On this subject, you need to know

that among the sciences known today,

only arithmetic and geometry are

free from falsity and uncertainties

because they consist entirely of logically

deducing a series of consequences,

concern a pure and simple subject

and their existence is not based

on anything that concrete

experience has made uncertain.

With their aid,

man can fall into mistakes

only by a lack of attention.

The third rule.

We must not stop at studying

the opinions and conjectures

of others or ourselves,

we must try to perceive

the real content of things,

with the clarity of the evidence.

To this end, we use

intuition and deduction.

By intuition, I do not mean the

inconstant fruit of sensations

or of our imaginations,

but the concept that flows

from a pure and attentive mind,

so clear and distinct

that no doubt can remain about it.

For example, two and two are the

same quantity as three and one,

in other words four.

As for deduction, this is

everything that we do not accept

as necessarily true in the

light of previous knowledge

obtained with absolute certainty.

All the other rules are born

from these rules and above all

the fourth one that I deduce

from the previous ones.

A method is necessary for

the search for the truth,

a method that leads

thoughts with order,

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes